Review of Bravo Belt Holster

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Earlier this week I received an email:

From: BravoBelt Team
Sent: Monday, October 4, 2021 5:59 AM
To: blog@joehuffman.org
Subject: LOVE YOUR ARTICLE!

Hi!
I was searching around and came across with your article: A step in the right direction. I love the content! My name is Oliver and I’m on the Outreach Team for @BravoBelt. We recently released an updated BravoBelt holster that I think your readers would appreciate.
Let me know if you would like one to review and I will drop one in the mail for you.
Thanks!

Oliver Sana
Digital Operations Manager
The BravoBelt Team
www.bravobelt.com

After looking at their website I was skeptical, but at 3:00 AM the next day I agreed to review their holster. I was skeptical for three reasons:

  1. The opening for the gun is elastic and collapses when the gun is removed which probably makes it difficult to reholster one handed and without looking at the holster.
  2. The snapped strap over the top of the gun will slow the draw.
  3. The spare magazine are shown on the same side of body as the gun. This will slow your reloads. And for the left handed shooter it’s going to take some real contortions to reach your reload.

From their website (see more pictures on Amazon):

BravoBeltHolster

I received the holster two days after agreeing to review it.

The first thing I noticed when I opened the package was the smell. The smell of neoprene was almost overpowering. Thankful the smell faded after a couple days in the open air.

I was pleased to observe the magazine holster was different from what was pictured. The magazine holster was a separate pouch which fastened with Velcro to almost wherever you want it. I was easily able to position it on my left side exactly where I wanted it.

The holster is extremely comfortable. It was almost soothing!

This is where I run out of nice things to say about the holster. My other concerns were mostly realized.

The elastic opening immediately collapsed when the gun was drawn. I could wiggle the gun back into the holster with one just one hand but I really needed to look at it as I was doing it. There are various scenarios in defensive handgun usage where this can be important. In the General Defensive Handgun class from Insights Training one of the critical features of a holster was that it be relatively easy to holster your gun, sight unseen, with one hand. This holster fails that test.

The same sort of story can be told about putting a magazine into the holster on the other side. If you do a reload with a partially empty magazine and want to put the used magazine in the holster you need to use another hand (holding the gun? Nope.), get your eyes on the holster, or fumble one handed for a bit. I’m not liking these scenario in a defensive encounter.

The strap over the back of the gun is required for secure carry. The gun moves around too much without it.

I practiced drawing for several minutes and I was able to get into a “groove” that was faster than I expected. It was more complicated than a typical draw with the snap needing to be released, then flipped over the back of the gun, and then the hand going down again to get under the strap. The elastic helped some. The strap would do a lot of the flipping on it’s own but I still needed to time things right and make sure my hand was under the strap when I gripped the gun.

I could comfortably and repeatedly get off my first shot in 2.25 S from concealment from underneath a unbuttoned flannel shirt. Not too bad, I thought. I could not get it down to 2.0 S. As I sped up the strap and/or my t-shirt would inevitably get between my hand and the grip of the gun.

I put my Kramer IWB #2 holster back on and tested my draw speed. 1.5 S was repeatable. Hmmm… 1.5 S to 2.25 S is a 50% increase in draw time. Is a 0.75 seconds critical? One could make the case that it could sometimes mean the difference between life and death. It’s probably not super critical in the big picture. I think I would worry more about the increase in complexity in a time of stress causing a tangled clothing draw of 5.0 S instead of the 2.25 S draw under controlled conditions.

I asked Barb to model the holster for pictures and she readily agreed. Pictures are with the holster unconcealed for demonstration purposes. Wearing it over a t-shirt and under my flannel shirt made little difference in functionality than as shown below:

image

Notice the pouch for your cellphone in the picture above? That worked well for me.

The Velcro attached spare magazine holster had the advantage of being adjustable to exactly the right spot regardless of your waist size.

image

She was not happy with it. If it was low enough to easily draw then it was just below the widest portion of her hips. This made it more difficult to conceal, risked having it slide down, and made walking and bending over uncomfortable. I had her raise it up to where it was above the top the widest area of her hips. Then the draw was difficult because she was running out of range of motion to be able to lift her gun high enough to clear the holster:

image

The fit on me was a little better. I could position the height of the holster such that the gun didn’t poke me when walking or bending over and I could complete the draw even though I was reaching the end of my range of motion.

image

image

The price for this holster is $27.77 to $29.95 (depending on waist size) on Amazon. That is a great price for a functional holster. But this holster has functional deficiencies for defensive carry. That said, because of the extreme comfort it might be that someone is more likely to carry than not carry. And the first rule of gun safety is to have a gun.

Rolf and I shoot an ASI match

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I invited Rolf to go to an ASI match with me and this morning he showed up at my house about 8:20 AM and I drove us the rest of the way to the Renton Fish and Game Club.

I expected with the weather on the cool side, threats of rain, and ammo shortages the number of people would be less than usual. I was wrong. 95 shooters showed up. There were 15 or 16 people on our squad. This makes the match longer than usual. One of the things I like about the ASI matches are that they are usually over by 12:30 or 1:00 and there is enough time left in the day to do other things. It was right at 2:00 PM before we were done. But having lots of shooters is a good thing for the gun culture, so I’ll stop whining about that now.

I first “met” Rolf on the email distribution list for the Microsoft Gun Club (now “The Gun Club at Microsoft). Later I met him in person at the Tuesday Night Pistol League at Weapons Safety, Inc. This was all stationary shooting at a stationary target. He has taken numerous courses from Insights Training, he has been participating and/or volunteering at Boomershoot for many years and I figured he had shot at least a few USPSA pistol matches or maybe a few IPDA matches. Nope. This was his first “action” shooting match.

Hmmm… Okay, well, I know he will do fine. I’ve seen him shoot pistol and revolver before (he used a .357 to shoot boomers at “entertainingly close” distances).

I took a few pictures of him at the match today and after reviewing them he said this is the best one:

20211009_133145

“Always willing to lend a hand out”, he told me.

I’m inclined to think this one is better:

20211009_133153

I told him I expected he would come in between the bottom third and the bottom half. After seeing him shoot the match I stood by the prediction.

Match results are here. He came in at the 32nd percentile, Very close to my prediction and excellent for a first time action shooter.

I had a couple mechanical malfunctions (and a couple mental ones as well). My powder puff loads failed to reliably cycle the action. The cool weather probably contributed to this. In the hot (for the Seattle area) summer the loads cycled the same gun just fine. I think I need to add another 0.1 of a grain to the load to make sure they work in the cooler weather. I probably could grip the gun tighter and make them more reliable but it would be better to increase the charge a little bit. This will allow me to use them with new shooters with reduced risk of them getting frustrated with the failures to extract and feed.

Gun and ammo scams

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I did a web search for small pistol primers and found most brands of primers at unbelievable prices. They have Federal small pistol for $35.00/1000 and CCI small pistol primers for $50.00/1000.

I was suspicious but went through the order process. The cart did not result in taking my credit card information even though I opted for credit card payment instead of PayPal. It ended with a message saying I would be contacted for my payment information. An hour or so later I received an email giving me the payment options of PayPal,
Cash app, or Apple Pay. No credit card option.

I did some research. The domain was created on February 24th, 2021. Hmmm…

Their “About” page an other pages say “WELCOME TO HOUSE OF FIRE ARM”. That wording is a little odd… The email address they sent the payment request from is “House of Firearms houseoffirearms@gmail.com”.

The website says the company is located in Kansas. But a business search on the Kansas Security of State web site comes up empty for the names:

  • House of Firearm
  • House of Fire Arm
  • House of Firearms
  • House of Fire Arms

I am almost certain it is a scam.

I found another web site, again with awesome prices, with similar wording on many of their pages which I am very suspicious of. I haven’t fully investigated them yet.

Be careful out there. If something is too good to be true it probably is.

Quote of the day—Puertorro in the US + (@wisemagius)

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Hope one day you realize all you are is a deluded gun-runner.

You wrap yourself in a thin veneer of an imagined higher cause, ignoring the blood of innocents on you, all because of some tools you worship.

Puertorro in the US + (@wisemagius)
Tweeted on October 3, 2021
[This is what they think of you.

Of course it’s projection. Far more innocent people have been murdered because criminals had a legal monopoly on weapons than when weapons were legally available to all.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Rob Schneider (@RobSchneider)

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Many Americans are waking up from their slumber and discovering the hangover of tyranny in the guise of safety.

Rob Schneider (@RobSchneider)
Tweeted on October 2, 2021
[I have nothing to add.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Jennifer Granick

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Trawling through Google’s search history database enables police to identify people merely based on what they might have been thinking about, for whatever reason, at some point in the past. This is a virtual dragnet through the public’s interests, beliefs, opinions, values and friendships, akin to mind reading powered by the Google time machine. This never-before-possible technique threatens First Amendment interests and will inevitably sweep up innocent people, especially if the keyword terms are not unique and the time frame not precise. To make matters worse, police are currently doing this in secret, which insulates the practice from public debate and regulation.

Jennifer Granick
Surveillance and cybersecurity counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
Exclusive: Government Secretly Orders Google To Identify Anyone Who Has Searched A Name, Address And Telephone Number
[As I have mentioned before I’ve been impressed with Granick on Internet freedom issues.

Avoid the use of Google. They are evil. Use DuckDuckGo or something similar, use a privacy window in your browser and consider using a VPN such as Private Internet ACCESS.—Joe]

Dominos?

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There are a number of indicators of interest to me around the world.

What You Need to Know About Evergrande

the company scrambles to find funds, construction has stalled on its projects, putting the future of the 1.4 million properties that it has committed to building in doubt. The situation has sparked protests at Evergrande headquarters in Shenzhen, China. Protestors included contractors owed money by Evergrande and those who have paid for a home that may now never be built.

One of World’s Largest Port Operators Warns Global Supply Chain ‘Crisis’ Will Last Longer Than Expected

“Regardless if it is a port, vessel, or warehouse, when one becomes impacted, it quickly results in a downward spiral as delays accumulate,” Maersk’s update reads. “We see pockets of improvements, only to get setbacks when our operations encounter new COVID-19 outbreaks and lockdowns.”

Households Brace for Higher Winter Heating Costs as Natural Gas Prices Vault

The relentless rise in natural gas prices continued on Oct. 6, highlighting the looming threat to U.S. households bracing for higher heating costs in the event of a harsh winter.

U.S. natural gas futures were up 1.11 percent at $6.312 per million British thermal units (mmBtu) in early trading on Oct. 6 after jumping around 9 percent a day earlier to settle at $6.312 per mmBtu, their highest level since 2008.

While gas prices in Europe and Asia have more than tripled this year, the United States has largely been shielded from the global crunch because of plentiful supplies. While U.S. natural gas is trading around the $6 per mmBTu mark, it’s at around $30-plus in Europe and Asia.

But experts warn the global natural gas crunch could have ripple effects, with possible impacts on households in the United States.

Those are just a sample.

Housing material is expensive and difficult to find. Labor is in short supply too.

The U.S. government is going to increase the debt even though everyone knows they can’t possibly pay off the existing debt. The situation of other governments, world wide, is not much different.

Closer to home is the drought this summer blew away the previous all time record in terms of total rainfall in Clearwater County Idaho. The yields were 1/3 to 1/2 of normal with very low quality. The drought wasn’t just local either.

It is not difficult to envision a domino effect and things go completely bonkers

Prepare appropriately. I want an underground bunker in Idaho.

Quote of the day—Andrew Yang

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I’m confident that no longer being a Democrat is the right thing.

Andrew Yang
October 4, 2021
BREAKING UP WITH THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY
[That thought will get a lot of support in my circle of gunnies!

Before you even think he might be inclined to side with Libertarians or Republicans (from the same post):

I donated to Bernie Sanders’ campaign – everything he said struck me as true

…

When Trump won, I was surprised and took it as a red flag and call to action. Having spent six years working in the Midwest and the South I believed I had some insight as to what had driven Trump’s victory. I spent several years making the case for what I believed was the major policy that could address it – Universal Basic Income.

I saw nothing in his blog post that indicates he has changed these beliefs. As recently as September 27, 2021 he was still enthusiastic for UBI.

That said, Yang resonated with a lot of people. And having that pull someplace outside the Democrat party is probably a good thing. It helps split the political left.—Joe]

Ugly behavior

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Via email from Chet who says, “The crack down/revolt is just beginning”:

Education leaders decry ‘ugly’ behavior by attendees at Washington state school board meetings

It wasn’t their mask mandate to make, but school officials are getting the heat all the same.

…

To reduce the chances for these types of conflicts, some school districts have resorted to calling the police preemptively to monitor meetings, Aune said, or moved their meetings online. The Seattle School Board, seeing cases arise across the state and country, brought on extra security to monitor in-person meetings and escort staff back to their cars over the summer, said Chandra Hampson, the board’s president. To make sure there was enough security at schools when the year began, the board briefly returned to remote sessions. Meetings will resume in person later this month.

Across the country, there have been similar displays, prompting the National Association of School Boards to call for the involvement of the FBI, the Department of Justice and other law enforcement authorities.

While I think a lot of the “facts” quoted by the anti-vax and anti-mask people are taken out of context and/or distorted the politicians believing they have the legitimate power to shut down the economy and force people to accept injections get zero support from me. In fact, I’m sometimes cheering on those opposing the politicians even though I think the opposition is for the wrong reasons.

We live in interesting times. The “ugly behavior” is likely to get uglier on all sides. Prepare appropriately.

Quote of the day—Cantankerous Socialist @Cante12175815

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Bless, did I hit a nerve Cletus

Perhaps you need to visit a gay bar and get rid of all that pent up frustration.

Toodle pip

xxx

Cantankerous Socialist @Cante12175815
Tweeted on September 20, 2021
[This was in response to receiving the honor of a Markley’s Law Monday quote of the day a couple weeks ago.

I would like to thank Cantankerous Socialist @Cante12175815 for confirming my previous diagnosis.—Joe]

Quote of the day—sploosh @SploooshSploosh

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Frail Penis Coalition rails against president from 20 years ago to cover up their frail penises.. Doesn’t this get tiresome when there are 400 million guns in the US?

sploosh @SploooshSploosh
Tweeted on September 26, 2021
[It’s another Markley’s Law Monday! H/T to In Chains @InChainsInJail.

When the advocates for the criminals attempting to infringe upon a specific enumerated right have nothing but childish insults you know they are getting really desperate for quality workers. Are these people unpaid interns? Or are they registered sex offenders who cannot get any other job?

It doesn’t really matter. We have SCOTUS decisions they have nothing.—Joe]

Temporary safety versus essential liberty

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Via brother Doug on Facebook:

SecurityLiberty

Mr. Franklin would have approved this meme.

Bullet sale

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I just purchased some bullets (not loaded ammo) from Black Bullets International. They had a flash sale of 15% off if you used the coupon code BBIFLASH15 with purchases of 50 pound boxes. I’m not sure when the sale expires. Act fast if you are interested.

Quote of the day—Per Bylund

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Government’s track record in creating public goods that are of actual value to people and that do not waste resources is nothing short of dismal. Then add the public choice aspect to the whole thing, that politicians have their own interests and therefore may not pursue the public good even if they know it. The assumption that government will fix the economy and increase our standard of living beyond what entrepreneurs can do is unbearably naïve.

I do not think these problems matter much to proponents of MMT, however. Because it is not a theory of how the economy works and so does not concern itself with worldly things like production, innovation, entrepreneurship, scarcity (other than as potentially causing inflation), or time. It is a pseudoreligious conviction that anything is possible and that the one and only solution is always Glorious Government.

Per Bylund
September 14, 2021
The Political Alchemy Called Modern Monetary Theory
[This article is the best explanation I have read on why MMT cannot work.

Some of big takeaways not outlined in the quote above:

  • Government creation of currency is not the same as creating money.
  • Government spending diverts resources from meeting the demands of the public markets.
  • Reducing the production of goods and services in the market result in inflation.
  • Idle/unused resources are sometime idle/unused for a good reason and are best left that way for now.

Previous critiques have left me somewhat unconvinced. I was certain MMT was fatally flawed, but I couldn’t find the clear flaws and conclusively prove to myself it was a terrible disaster in the making I was certain it had to be. This article was a huge help to me.—Joe]

A step in the right direction

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Via email from Rolf.

Thousands cleared by judge’s ruling will seek gun arrest damages

A decision by U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth in another fight over guns created by the local government in Washington means it could be getting costly for taxpayers there.

It’s because the judge’s decision “has cleared the way for claims for damages by as many as 4,500 people” who were arrested under the now-defunct law against carrying handguns in public.

The problem was outlined by constitutional expert Jonathan Turley, who explained the specific case applies to six people, but the damages could be claimed by thousands.

“Those rising costs do not seem to register with the D.C. City Council,” he explained. “The city could appeal and argue that, at the time of the arrests, it was not clear that the underlying law was unconstitutional.”

Lamberth, however, already rejected that claim and ruled that the law was clearly unconstitutional when the city passed it.

The decision from Lamberth noted how D.C. effectively had “banned non-residents from possessing a firearm,” and prevented anyone “from carrying a weapon in public.”

It’s not a prosecution under 18 USC 242, but it’s a step in the right direction.

Bolt action

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I recently received a gift from son-in-law Jacob:

20211002_135905

20211002_135703

Yes, it’s a bolt action pen in a nice box.

I’m using it to sign documents associated with guns and explosives.

Free to a good home

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I recently sorted through all my all reject brass from years of reloading. I discovered I had a fair number of 357 Sig cases. I cleaned, dried, and bagged them. My guess is there are between 100 and 125 pieces.

image

I have no interest in reloading them so they are free to a good home. Send me an email or text message if you can meet in the Seattle area or near Moscow or Orofino (or Sandpoint or Coeur d’Alene the 14th –> 16th of this month) in Idaho. Or if you want to pay the postage I would ship them to you.

Quote of the day—Catherine Clifford @CATCLIFFORD

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There have to be more people at different levels in the organization, in different parts of the organization, who are given the platform and the ability to initiate, to mobilize, to move things forward. It doesn’t only live at the C-Suite.

And ideally, if it’s done well, each person, no matter what part of the company you’re in, feels that they have a stake in this climate change response. Nobody is exempting themselves because they don’t know enough about climate. An effective response is one where everyone has something to add here and is a part of the response.

Catherine Clifford @CATCLIFFORD
September 26, 2021
Climate psychologist says neither gloom-and-doom nor extreme solution-obsessed optimism is the best way to discuss climate change productively
[I knew there were dog psychologists, horse psychologists, and I found out there are cat psychologists and even cow psychologists. But climate psychologists? Wow!

I wonder if she has a heavy client load. Are there a lot of climates in need of a shrink?

To be fair, I poked around a little bit I can can’t find where she claims she helps climates with their mental health issues.

I do wonder about her mental health some though. She seems to presume facts not in evidence. I’m fairly certain her claim that everyone should feel “they have a stake in the climate change response” is not true. For example, there are those who are more concerned about another ice age putting a sheet of ice a mile thick over southern Canada and the northern states than the possibility of a dozen feet of ocean rise. Hence, if we really think we can affect the climate then we should error on the side of keeping the earth warm rather than on keeping it cool.

Does she want those people to feel like they have a stake in the climate change response? Or is she is living in a delusional world where everyone agrees with her view of reality. In other words, is she a liar or delusional? It could be both, but I have insufficient evidence to conclusively determine which.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Jim Bovard

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The FBI’s power and federal legitimacy are far more tenuous than Washington recognizes. Beyond the nation’s big cities and the coastlines, federal authority hinges largely on the consent of local citizens. Once that consent vanishes, FBI agents are left to sit in their cars eating their lunches all by themselves. But plenty of pundits and congressmen still clamor for the government to confiscate everyone’s guns or forcibly inject their children. If the feds came in and started shooting mountain men who refused to surrender their firearms, they would likely quickly find themselves in a worse plight than Custer at the Little Big Horn.

Jim Bovard
September 27, 2021
He Thought I Was an Undercover Fed
[Consent of the governed is a concept in our country’s founding documents. With a nearly $30 Trillion debt, incredible overreach of the U.S. Constitution’s limits, and blatant violation of our specific enumerated rights, it is long past time to revoke consent.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Jefferson Mack

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LEADERS ARE NOT TO BE TRUSTED AND FOLLOWED, THEY ARE TO BE CONTROLLED AND LIMITED.

Jefferson Mack
1986
Secret Freedom Fighter: Fighting Tyranny without Terrorizing the Innocent, page 61.
[Lots of good stuff in this old document.—Joe]